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70 years of H&M: Discover the best of the archives

We dug deep into H&M’s past and found key pieces from bygone times that are just as relevant today as in decades past.

16 November 2017.

PHOTO: HANNA TVEITE

STYLING: COLUMBINE SMILLE | LUNDLUND

Left: Marina wearing a vintage two-piece suit from the 1960s, paired with this season’s best slingbacks. Right: Marina in a very cool fuchsia dress, made in the late ’60s.

1947–1967 GETTING STARTED Padded shoulders, knee-length
A-line skirts and nipped in waists. When the first H&M store
opened its doors in the small Swedish town Västerås in 1947, it
created an immediate sensation. The store, then named Hennes (meaning
hers in Swedish), sold on-trend women's dresses in an array of styles
at a better price than all its competitors, creating a new way of
enjoying fashion.

Left: Marina in a men’s trenchcoat from the late 1960s, styled with this season’s wide trousers and a classic roll neck sweater. Right: Marina wearing a bright red vintage coat from the early 1990s.

1968–1977 MENSWEAR AND RAPID EXPANSION In the ’40s and
’50s, the art of dressing was still a conservative sport and young
people were often expected to dress in the same style as their
parents. Come the 1960s and this all changed. The decade brought short
skirts in bold colours, optical patterns, plastic pearls and big
hairdos. It's also the decade that H&M founder Erling Persson
bought the hunting and fishing store Mauritz Widforss, started selling
menswear – and added the M to H&M. The company kept growing and
went international, adding stores in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom.

"Growing up, I thought of H&M as a brand that had
everything I wanted. The newspapers had sketched H&M fashion ads
lining articles, and I remember seeing them, thinking to myself that
it had to be the best company in the world for someone who loved
fashion," says creative advisor Ann-Sofie Johansson, who started
as a sales advisor at a store in Stockholm in 1987.

We didn't
have a lot of cred and we were seen as a retail store among many
others.

H&M'S FIRST HEAD OF DESIGN MARGARETA VAN
DEN BOSCH ON THE '80S

1978–1986 BECOMING A FASHION SUPERPOWER Before the 1970s,
H&M was mainly a shopping destination for women and men looking
for affordable – yet fashionable – clothing. In the latter half of the
decade, H&M's journey to become a global fashion power speeded up.

"H&M wasn't considered cool before the '80s. We didn't have
a lot of cred and we were seen as a retail store among many
others," says H&M's first head of design Margareta van den Bosch.

With trends including flared denim, bohemian dresses and punk
influences, the customer of the '70s and '80s demanded a more youthful
alternative to the classic and trend-driven apparel H&M had sold
during previous decades. Consequently, H&M launched
the Impuls and Rocky concepts, which we know today as Divided.

Left: Marina in a cute vintage sundress from the 1980s, styled with this season’s voluminous take on the classic white shirt. Right: Marina wearing a linen safari jacket from the 1990s archive.

1987–1993: REFINING THE DESIGNS "We were seven
people in the design team, and we had stores in six countries. Today,
we're hundreds of designers and buyers and have 4,500 stores in 68 countries."

Margareta van den Bosch was hired as H&M's head of design in
1987 with a mission to turn the brand's collections into something
more than just clothing at the best price. Together with a rapidly
growing team, they transformed H&M into a fashion force.

"We developed a bunch of different concepts, because our
customers required it. For the preppy, we launched American
Sportswear, which we renamed LOGG," says Margareta.

This was before the Internet, and before computers were used as a
designer's main working tool, so instead inspiration came from
travels, television and countless visits to flea markets and vintage stores.

"We did everything by hand back then. We drew all the stripes,
all the checks, all the patterns and all the shapes," says
Margareta van den Bosch.

"This is when H&M's popularity exploded. In the l late
'80s," says Ann-Sofie Johansson.

Marina wearing a cable-knit, chunky vintage sweater from the early noughties.

1994–2003: INTRODUCING SUSTAINABILITY Now, more than
ever, we know that the future of fashion has to be sustainable, and
nearly 25 years ago H&M took its first steps on this path. The
first collection, named Nature Calling, was presented in
the mid '90s, and itlooked the part.

"It was the epitome of how people then imagined eco-friendly
clothing; unbleached linen, coconut buttons and pale hues only. It was
on-trend then, but of course we didn't have the same know-how about
sustainable materials as now," says Ann-Sofie Johansson.

In the '90s, with minimalism a constant trend, H&M grew to
become one of the world's biggest fashion retailers, but the label
still didn't make a lot of noise. In 1997 the brand opened a PR
department, started making massive global, marketing campaigns and, in
2001, its first-ever international fashion show. Supermodels – led by
Grace Jones – and the international press were brought to a former
limestone quarry, hours away from the Swedish capital, to see some of
the best items from H&M's spring and summer collections.

"Of all my years here, I think the late '90s and early 2000s
was my favourite period. It was around the turn of the millennia that
I really felt that what we were doing was really working, and that
people loved the clothes we were making," recalls Margareta van
den Bosch.

Marina in a white shirt and a deconstructed jacket from 2008’s Comme des Garçons collab collection.

2004-2009 LAUNCHING DESIGNER COLLABORATIONS Having set
the precedent for global fashion chains for several decades, H&M's
designer collaborations went on to re-shape high-street fundamentally.

"We've surprised so many by being able to do it, and a lot of
people in the industry have been quite shocked by how successful
they've been, and by all the beautiful, timeless, pieces we've been
able to create," says Margareta van den Bosch.

"Karl Lagerfeld was a lovely man, and I was impressed by seeing
how closely he worked with his team," she continues about the
first-ever designer collaboration, which sold out in minutes when it
launched in the autumn of 2004.

A lot of
people in the industry have been quite shocked by how successful
they've been.

MARGARETA VAN DEN BOSCH ON THE
DESIGNER COLLABORATIONS

"The success of the designer collaborations has proven H&M's
ability to create very intricate and advanced collections," says
Ann-Sofie Johansson.

Although designer collaborations have been hugely successful, the
H&M design team wanted to highlight their own designs too.

"Before we started with the H&M Studio collections, we made
something called press collections. We wanted our collections to be
shown in magazines and at Paris Fashion Week because we're so proud of
what we do and wanted to put focus on our designs, and show everyone
that we work with the same timelines as everyone else and how
fantastic our teams are," says Ann-Sofie Johansson.

In 2008, the New Development design department is started at the
Stockholm headquarters, where H&M's most fashion-forward and
conceptual collections are created – including H&M Studio,
Conscious Exclusive and the guest designer collections.

2010-2017 A CONSCIOUS FUTURE With annual fashion shows in
Paris and collaborations with the world's most beloved designers and
artists H&M is one of the world's greatest forces in fashion. Due
to its size, H&M has to take responsibility, and has constantly
improved its way of making sustainable fashion during the past decades.

After sitting down with the creative advisors and H&M legends
Margareta van den Bosch and Ann-Sofie Johansson we wanted to find out
what the future has to offer.

"We have a set goal," Ann-Sofie says firmly. "By 2030
we're only working with sustainable materials, and the clothing will
have to adapt to that. I believe in different new materials and new
techniques that will make it possible for us to continue to make
desirable, value for money fashion."

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